Openreach detail caveats with retaining broadband when analogue UK phones stop
Network operator Openreach (BT) recently revealed that they would try to maintain broadband connectivity on old analogue UK phone lines that fail to go digital by the 31st January 2027. But they also included a caveat to say that this would only be maintained “where technically possible“. Today the operator revealed a bit more detail on this.
Just to recap. The old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) from BT and Openreach’s supporting Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) service are currently due to be switched off on the aforementioned deadline. At this point those who have yet to switch to a modern IP-based (digital) alternative solution will eventually find themselves placed on a temporary Emergency Voice Access (eVAC) solution.
The eVAC is a last resort service that maintains a lot of the original functionality of those older lines, albeit while losing quite a few of its features and costing significantly more (partly to encourage those in this boat to get off it as quickly as they can). Under the original plan this would have only retained phone (voice) connectivity and NOT broadband, but as above, that did recently change.
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A couple of months ago Openreach revealed that the eVAC (aka – WLR3 eVAC) solution would now, where “technically possible“, also keep linked broadband services running for those who had bundled them with their legacy phone service (e.g. legacy copper ADSL and hybrid fibre FTTC broadband services). At the time we did query with Openreach why some lines might be able to carry broadband forward post-Jan 2027 and not others, although this was said to still be subject to ongoing development.
The network operator has today published a new briefing, which provides a bit of additional technical insight into the problem, especially for people on Sub Loop Unbundled SMPF (shared) lines, which reflect a small number of alternative internet providers. But it also provides some extra background on the approach for standard lines (WLR) too.
Openreach Statement
Openreach announced to industry on the 24th of September that we are developing the capability to preserve Broadband lines including SLU during migration to WLR (EVAc).
• WLR3 (EVAc) doesn’t support broadband like WLR3 (PSTN) does; there is no option to take WLR3 EVAc+FTTC or WLR3 EVAc+SMPF
• This is because FTTC and SMPF rely on the presence of an underlying copper bearer. Under existing plans, if a voice line is migrated to WLR (EVAc), the broadband would be ceased and stop working.
• We’re aware that many end customers who may be migrated to WLR3 (EVAc) still use their broadband and may not understand the link between the PSTN closure and their broadband being impacted. Many of those end customers may rely on their broadband for telecare or other connectivity requirements.
• To preserve the broadband for these types of end customer, we are developing a mechanism by which broadband services can continue working in a standalone state (with no linked WLR3 line), following the migration of WLR3 to WLR3 (EVAc), or the cease of the WLR3.
• This will involve breaking the link between the broadband service and the WLR line during the process of migrating the voice, so that the broadband service remains working for all end customers.
• This is a temporary measure designed to support PSTN closure. Broadband services left in products in line with withdrawal of WLR3 (EVAc) timescales.
Key points
• SLU SMPF broadband linked to a WLR line may remain active when the voice service moves to WLR3 (EVAc).
• Voice and broadband services can be managed separately and do not necessarily need to be ceased together.
• Continuity will depend on the individual line and technical configuration and cannot be guaranteed in every case.
• WLR3 (EVAc) is a temporary safeguard, not a long-term alternative to migrating customers to an All-IP or fibre-based service.
• The PSTN withdrawal timetable and existing migration expectations remain unchanged.
The briefing also reveals that Communications Providers (ISPs) can ask Openreach to cease a WLR3 voice line while preserving its associated SLU broadband as a standalone service (i.e. the “lose voice, keep broadband” option). Openreach, however, emphasises that for now providers should continue to prioritise the migration of older services to alternate All IP (digital) products until the deadline.
Retail providers will, however, be expected to submit requests to identify the lines, before the deadline, for where they wish Openreach to cease voice on their behalf so as to retain broadband. Openreach previously told ISPreview, somewhat tentatively, that EVAC + Broadband migrations probably won’t take place until around mid-April 2027 onwards. So, none of this is going to happen suddenly, right on the deadline – it will be a gradual post-switch off transition.
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Just to remind people. Modern digital alternatives are available for both older ADSL and FTTC broadband lines (e.g. SOGEA) from many Openreach based ISPs via the existing copper infrastructure. So you don’t have to wait for full fibre FTTP to arrive or anything like that, before making the switch to a digital alternative.
Lest we forget that the physical removal of copper lines is a much slower, separate, process that will take years to fully complete after FTTP becomes available. Today we’re talking more about the services that go over the top of those copper lines, rather than the physical infrastructure itself.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Translation: We know the 31st January 2027 deadline will be missed, so now we’re rowing back so as to not cut off hundreds of thousands of lines overnight.
They’ve gone from the deadline will not, I repeat will not, be extended and you will lose everything…to this vague promise of both telephone and broadband will still work.
Not really. The BT Group still gets its big win. The PSTN as we knew it is closing in January. They get their massive cost savings anyway while being able to charge an eyewatering sum of money for EVAC until those customers finally remember that they can, in fact, move to modern products after all.
EVAC has been pushed as the soft landing for telephony for a couple of years now. BT retail and wholesale customers get a cheaper version called PDPL without the price rises and phone-only customers have been migrated over to it already. They have merely tweaked the rules over which lines get migrated to either of these interim replacement products.
@ Ivor:
BT Group has missed the target by a wide margin, even after a two-year extension to the deadline. It will be left with about a million lines complicating matters, with a vague indication of closure to the fudges. This looks pretty bad. I expect the business will pick up quite a bit of flack in the new year, both from customers/end users and the owners.
Quite slippage is obvious to see, there are 10 streets around us lacking Openreach FTTP and this area has never had FTTC.
Soon there will be 10 streets where most ISPs have nothing at all to offer.
Virgin Media built RFoG in 2017, Openreach are faced with build costs and hard to reach customers like us that just took advantage of the VM contract renewal discounts.
Digital Voice / VoIP only requires around 80-100kbps (0.08-0.1Mbps) upload and download bandwidth so will operate perfectly well over ADSL.
I can’t recall if VM offer a phone service for RFoG connections, they certainly didn’t when launched. It is possible to migrate a phone-only connection to VoIP with a third-party provider, connecting the VoIP phone / analogue adapter (to carry on using existing handsets) for that into the VM router.
As some ISPs have decided that the supporting SOADSL for what will be a small number of customers isn’t worth the hassle it may be more difficult to find a provider.
The above is true from a technical perspective but most of the major ISPs don’t provide a bundled VoIP service on ADSL. BT themselves don’t do it for consumer customers (they seem to be betting on starlink for that), though it appears they do for business. I wonder if they have implemented robust QoS. They did for FTTC but I’m not sure there’s anyone left with ADSL expertise now.
Allowing PDPL or EVAC to co-exist with ADSL is the sort of thing that should have been there from launch. Both are exchange based services so its not like it impedes the closure programme.
@ Ivor:
There should have been no compromises on the delivery of the endpoint, backed by solid execution.
This begs the question, why do people need EVAC *AND* broadband? I thought the whole purpose of EVAC was for voice-only customers who haven’t migrated to VoIP, so that they don’t get cut off. Unless they have some really rubbish DSL connection that’s barely usable, why can’t they get VoIP?
They don’t, it was.
It’s been added to support people who can’t or won’t migrate so they are not left in limbo, along with a big stick of a large price increase to help them along.
From the recent figures if everyone who has been putting it off now decided to migrate it is almost certainly not possible to migrate all the remaining legacy connections before the end of Jan.
My copper was disconnected 6 months ago, but I’m still not on fibre. However, that doesn’t make any difference to when we have a power cut like today, when a line was grounded, so we were without power for 2 hours. As we don’t have copper, I have to use my mobile, which requires me to walk half a mile up the hill, as no provider has coverage in the Ceriog Valley. So this is a great step forwards! And what is the reliability of the switches? Is there switched out redundancy, I guess not, so reliability has gone out of the window
Not sure why your copper went if fibre is not available, Openreach don’t cease copper lines where there is no alternative Fibre or FTTC. For phone it goes to PDPL, for ADSL broadband it won’t be ceased or stopped for new orders until there are alternatives. When fibre arrives, a battery unit can keep your broadband going during power cuts – if you are not vulnerable your ISP won’t provide that for free, but there are many battery options available if you can afford them. I have Jackery1000v2 (~£450) that stores 1KWhr, so can run broadband FTTP NTU and router on that for a day and charge it from a £300 600w generator from Screwfix. Like I say, not cheap, but there are options and smaller/cheaper battery options for shorter power outages. The FTTP serving exchange will have generator backup. FTTP/Broadband “switches” in the exchange will more resilient than a 50 year old phone network.
This adds to the suspicions that BT Group has missed its targets by a wide margin.
By offering a solution that does not move the connections to IP-based services, BT has exposed itself to what will effectively be an open-ended commitment, despite claiming the offerings are only temporary.
Note that that solution will be twice the price of what it cost a year ago and I expect that Ofcom will permit the price to rise substantially beyond even that.
Whilst I expect that EVAC has cost BT a substantial amount of money, CPs and end users are highly incentivised to move off it before it starts looking like a revenue stream rather than a cost to BT.
As I understand it, SOTAP analogue, PDPL and EVAC aren’t products that can be ordered by new customers. They are just temporary work-arounds for existing customers who, for various reasons, haven’t been moved to current products. They will just disappear as people move house, switch contracts and, eventually, as exchanges close. I expect that the number of lines converted to these products will be quite low.
PDPL or EVAC are IP based services using modern exchange equipment.
They have already made clear that PDPL is a medium term solution which will survive until the exchange closure programme gets under way. Expectations have already been set on EVAC hence the constant price rises and the use of the word “emergency”
Has anyone tried migrating from WLR3 & ADSL2+ to SoADSL & VoIP?
This is a proverbial nightmare, where GEA-FTTP isn’t yet built and especially where SoGEA is on a waiting list, because the VDSL2 rDSLAM cabinet(s) is/are at capacity.
Also WLR3 renumber & transfer out (of existing number).
I am currently trying to help 4 elderly households achieve this.
Orders get placed, then subsequently cancelled, several times over.
You phone up, to order SoADSL, you get told you’ve got to have SoGEA, even though the cab is full.
You cannot blame people for not migrating, to a digital equivalent service, when you fail to provide them with a working migration path.
Ofcom and/or ministers should have mandated that CPs/ISPs provide a workable solution for ALL of their consumer customers from the outset.
(For once, I find myself in complete agreement with BT Ivor!)
Telling elderly customers that they need to switch to a specialist provider, such as Andrews & Arnold, is not fair for someone with early stage dementia.
BTW and Openreach are now having to provide “bodge” solutions, because of the failure of some retail ISPs to actually offer the products some of their (generally elderly) customers need to switch to an “all digital” service.
How is BT going to deal with the Talk Talk customers still on FTTP who were not sold off to RISE Fibre?
We currently show as ‘no plans to build in this area’.
Only one property in our close can get full fibre, and that’s only because their phone line was restrung after being cut by a lorry.
So for openreach to say lots of properties are ‘choosing not to switch’ is quite frankly, an insult.
You are confusing two different things. You don’t need fibre to switch your phone line to digital.
Also the second sentence doesn’t make sense. It takes a lot more to deploy FTTP than re-stringing one cable, and if they really had run fibre to a pole for that one customer then anyone else on that pole would be eligible to take FTTP.
Openreach still repairs the copper network, so they wouldn’t trigger an FTTP upgrade because one line was damaged. It’d be more likely to happen for widespread damage such as from a flood or storm.
Various parties have conflated FTTP with ‘digital switchover’. This confusion led to a perceived lack of urgency. I don’t think this lane will get FTTP until the 2040s, nor should it, given the cost of connecting rural households.
The communications provider sent out modems to some friends with *incorrect instructions*. One of them was without a working landline for three weeks. Just not good enough. I gather that maybe one third of communications providers have barely – if that – got around to telling their customers ‘digital’ is happening.
We should have retained *retail regulation* if this massive change was on the horizon. We had price and service regulation from when BT was privatised in 1984 up to the 2000s. A BT telephone engineer should have gone from house to house to ensure the occupier’s telephone equipment (probably different in every home) worked after the switchover.
Also bear in mind the devastating loss in resilience. For 50-100 years anyone with a landine – from 1910 it was the rich, businesses and government, from the 1960s or 70s it even included normal folk – could make phone calls for days if the elec went off.
I’ll be lucky if I get 8 hours battery backup, although I need it (see below). It’s hard to regard ‘digital’ as anything other than a step backward. Here we had a *four day* power cut in late 2002. How the hell can OFCOM’s ‘code of practice’ suffice for events like that? Also if the internet goes off, from 2027 the phone fails. National Grid privately seem to agree with me that it’s been mishandled; some of their staff have no mobile signal and are worried how they’ll make phone calls in power cuts of more than an hour.
On my road, National Grid regularly – every few years – does ‘planned maintenance’, for instance tree cutting, occasionally even transformer replacement – and turns our elec off for 7-8 hours. The last time it happened it needed to go off from 9.30 to 17.00 h. (For H&S reasons National Grid no longer allows working near live cables although other countries do.)